The MGA With An Attitude
Tuesday, September 16, 2014:
Thursday, September 18, 2014: Missed an appointment for lack of contact information. Got an email later informing me of some unavoidable personal business preventing an earlier reply. Will have to reschedule later. With a little spare time available, Elliot booked into a card tournament late afternoon to early evening. Then we took an old friend and his family to dinner, followed by overnight stay with my younger daughter. Nice way to spend a day off. Friday, September 19, 2014: Dropped Elliot off at COD again, then headed for my next appointment. 
 Today I spent several hours with Gerard Geraci and his MGA Twin Cam in Naperville. He has a nice single side post lift that doesn't take up much space in the garage, and can be used for double stacking cars. 
 It has a factory type front sway bar which was not available until after this (1500 body type) car was produced, so that would be a nice aftermarket upgrade. 
 The twin carburetors were way out of whack, one with sticking choke. Had to R&R the front carb for access to bottom end to disassemble the main jet and jet bearings and jet seals, clean and polish the small bits, oil and realign the jet bearings, and then reassemble all. In the end we had it purring fairly well, so the test drive raised a few grins. 
This Twin Cam has been converted to the later type low compression pistons, so it is a bit down on power like the latest production cars. It also has a close ratio gearbox, so it was a bit slow getting off the line when the traffic light turns green. Standing on the throttle to launch it results in clutch smoke rather than tire smoke, so the CR box needs some finesse for street driving. A competition clutch might help. Not my cup of tea. My 1600 with standard gearbox is much easier to drive in city traffic. I could only tell the owner that he might sometime consider switching to standard gearbox for touring, as he has no intention toward competition. All in all a nice day with a very nice car. Saturday, September 20, 2014: Early rising and a run into Chicago to drop Elliot at a downtown Hotel for is weekend game tournament. He will stay in the city with a friend tonight. Immediately bail out back to the burbs with some time off for fun. I join up with a local cub friend and take his MGB to Meadowdale Raceway for an annual celebration of the vintage race track. Will post some MG pictures here. See following page for lots more vintage cars. MGs are alive and well in Chicagoland. MG TF at the track site. Track entrance, and part of the original track beside modern asphalt strip. When it rained we bailed out a little early. 
 
 
 Sunday, September 21, 2014: Sunday's appointment canceled, and just as well. This turned out to be a grunt work day. I changed a rear wheel bearing on my old Mazda RX7 (which younger daughter is now driving) in Downers Grove, IL. That was a royal PITA job. Did a run to my storage locker to pick up some big boy tools. Did another run to a friend's house to use his hydraulic press. Finally finished the job in about six hours. Checking email, received a message about a bloke reassembling an MG Midget after a professional repaint. Plugged his address into Mapquest and discovered it was very close to my evening's planned route with about 20 minutes to spare. So run to the storage locker in Romeoville, IL, first to return the tools (before 7-pm closing). Then hop on I-55 toward the city, and bail off near Midway Airport. After a few turns and getting caught by a freight train for a few minutes, I made my way down an alley to find Steve (Sparky) Sparks playing with his pride and joy. Hello, nice car, nice toys, nice work, 20 minutes, sorry, gotta run. 
 Back up Central Avenue, fast run on I-55, make it up Lake Shore Drive, turn on Balboa and Michigan Avenue. Pick up Elliot at the hotel where he has been having fun for two days and head out of town back to Downers Grove (where pizza was waiting for us). Busy day, now time for a rest. Monday, September 22, 2014: Seems like the Guru had a day off, so I turned into a tourist again. A friend living in Chicago felt the need to escape from the city for a day, so he drove out to the western suburbs. We unhitched the trailer and took the tail-free MGA for a day cruise down Route 66. Beginning Romeoville, IL, going to Bloomington-Normal, IL, if you take I-55 the trip would be less than two hours one way. Running on Historic Highway 66 (US-53 most of the way), you can add 40 to 50 minutes if you never stop. Stopping for photo-ops and lunch in a historic diner, add another 90 minutes or so. The return trip was about 1/3 expressways, to skirt around city traffic at both ends, but still 2/3 old Route 66 at a casual pace. With a few small detours we did 240 miles in about 7 hours. 
 
 
 
 
 Tuesday, September 23, 2014: Day off. Navigator spending time with his friends. Driver spending time with daughters. Driving after dark, something fell on my left foot. Checking later, I found the spring and cover from the dipper switch lying in the carpet. 
I recall the same situation about 25 years ago. At that time the riveted end of the exposed shaft
had let loose to drop the switch cover and spring. My expedient solution was to drill and tap the end of the shaft and reassemble it with a small screw and flat washer. This time the spindle with the tapped hole has split out the side and appears to be non-repairable. Kicked it too had too many times I guess. Now I'm a bit disappointed that this repair only lasted 25 years (and about a quarter million miles). Then again, that's longer than the original switch lasted before breaking the first time. Note to self: Buy that new dipper switch that you wouldn't buy 25 years ago. Meanwhile, drive with low beams only. Another issue just popped up. The new brake light pressure switch I installed on July 29 is requiring higher than desirable pedal force for switch contact. Need to keep en eye on this one. Wednesday, September 24, 2014:  Late morning I finally take the time to nudge the shaft seal back into place in the LF shock absorber. Remember that issue from month earlier? Well it was a really easy fix, so of course I should have done it long past. When the seal and new oil back in place the shock works again and the ride is back to MG standards. We will wait to see if the oil stays in place. 
 Been hanging around the old home area long enough. Time to get out of town. Late start, visit a friend to return a tool. Run the Eisenhower expressway (I-290) east to the "spaghetti bowl" (downtown Chicago), then run the Dan Ryan expressway (I-90/94) south to I-80. This move is to avoid high tolls for the trailer on a tollway. Then cruise I-80/90/94 east into Indiana before split off on I-94 into Michigan (finally). Lost an hour to change of time zone, now after 4-pm, getting too late for business hours visiting, so quick WiFi stop to lay new plans. We decide to take the lakefront scenic route from Benton Harbor to Holland, MI. Good move, quiet cruising, some of it on 25-mph local roads, nice sunset. 
 We run into Holland, MI, and drive past Eclectic Motorworks where we intend to visit next morning. Lo and behold, the shop is still open at 8-pm with Carl Heidleman in the office and a few more people in the shop. Carl's son has just finished installing a Z3 engine into his Beemer sedan, so it will go like scat. A couple of college students are welding a tube frame for a new formula SAE race car. 
 
MGB with front coil-over suspension installed.
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